Julian Glover might be one of many solely actors who requested to be killed off of “Sport of Thrones.” Glover admitted as a lot at Montreal Comedian Con in 2018 (per ScreenHub), explaining that he needed his Grand Maester Pycelle to chunk the bullet earlier than his season 6 demise. An important character in George R.R. Martin’s “A Track of Ice And Hearth” sequence, on display Pycelle grew to become some of the extraneous background gamers because the HBO adaptation wore on.
“I did not wish to do [season 6] as a result of I spotted I used to be being fully dismissed as a personality,” Glover informed IGN forward of the fantasy sequence’ ending. Talking of Lena Headey’s character, he recalled: “Cersei ticked me off on a regular basis, and I by no means had any comeback. In order that wasn’t any enjoyable to play.” The actor made the same assertion on the aforementioned popular culture conference, reportedly explaining that his character within the TV present by no means actually went wherever and he grew to become bored of enjoying a drained, aged man who spent most of his time fuming at Cersei.
The person behind Maester Pycelle obtained bored along with his character
Glover is correct that Pycelle grew to become a wallflower within the overcrowded sequence’ large solid of characters, however the Maester performs a pivotal position in each Martin’s model of the story and David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’ bold, messy TV present. Pycelle was, in spite of everything, one of many males who whispered within the ear of the Mad King Aerys, resulting in the Sacking of King’s Touchdown. As a grasp of poisons, he was additionally behind among the sequence’ greatest and most cruel energy shifts. But because of his age, Pycelle was usually portrayed within the TV sequence as an previous guard reverse youthful schemers like Aidan Gillan’s Littlefinger and Conleth Hill’s Lord Varys. By season 6, it was clear that it was time for Pycelle to go.
The veteran performer informed IGN that he spoke to the showrunners forward of season 6, saying, “Look, I do not wish to do that anymore, it isn’t fascinating to go on doing this and go on doing this, and what is going on to occur to him?” In response, they pitched him a “fantastic scene.” Glover, as was typical for the present’s solid, wasn’t aware of the main points of the scene forward of time, however he ended up loving the outcome. The actor has referred to as it a “rattling good scene,” telling the outlet that it “is strictly the form of means I needed to exit.” Within the present’s season 6 finale, Pycelle will get lured to what Glover calls “this terrible cell-like, prison-like ambiance,” the place he will get stabbed to dying by the creepy child spies working underneath Qyburn’s (Anton Lesser) command.
Glover is pleased with how his dying scene turned out
“The precise dying scene itself was so cunningly contrived,” Glover informed interviewers, noting the “fantastic irony” that the oldest character on the present was killed off by a bunch of children. In Martin’s “A Dance With Dragons,” it is Varys who kills Pycelle in help of the Lannisters, and his dying scene is brutal another way. One of many final issues his ally Kevan (Ian Gelder within the TV present) sees earlier than he is additionally killed is Pycelle’s corpse, leaking blood onto a ebook he was studying earlier than dying whereas “throughout his candle had been bits of bone and mind, islands in a lake of melted wax.” It is a memorable, gory dying scene in a franchise stuffed with them.
That picture is haunting and gnarly, however the scene Glover shot was extra action-packed. The actor famous that it needed to be shot in a single take because of all of the pretend blood, and he needed to nail a stunt fall after the child attackers overwhelmed Pycelle. “And I did get it in a single after which that was very passable, and I used to be very completely satisfied to say goodbye to individuals on that exact second,” he informed IGN. Glover was good to ask for an out, even when his character was set to die sooner or later anyway. The remaining season of “Sport of Thrones” was poorly obtained, whereas he went on to seem in acclaimed exhibits and movies like “Inside No. 9,” “The Crown,” and Todd Discipline’s “Tár.”
